‘Star Wars’ Season and the Constant Plight of the Writer: Links You Need to See

By Michael Epstein

Dec 10, 2015

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Star Wars season is a nothing-idea, seeing as Star Wars fandom exists in the world always, just as the Force does, experiencing periods of senescence in “dark periods” in which no new Star Wars material is created. (This is a rarity, thanks to the Expanded Universe.) Some other publications have devoted their entire December calendar to producing Star Wars content, which is dangerous but sometimes fruitful. One of the apples in the Star Wars bushel is the Daily Dot’s discovery of this Star Wars piano medley. Pretty cool piano, too.

It may be Star Wars season in some places, but it’s the holiday season all across America. And nothing says “Happy Holidays!” like the gore of Quentin Tarantino. With his next star-studded, snowed-in film The Hateful Eight just a few weeks away from entering limited release, the data wizards at FiveThirtyEight have answered two of the most important questions about the director’s collected works.

—How many people have been killed in Tarantino flicks? —How much profanity have Tarantino characters used?

The data is very thorough and includes a curse/death ratio for every film. This is the thing nerd-dreams are made of, and so are chicken wings.

Nobody likes greedy nerds, though: a father and son were arrested in Syracuse, New York, for trying to steal $40,000 worth of chicken wings from the restaurant where they worked. Why did anyone steal that many chicken wings? You’ll have to ask Eater.

Something equally nerdy but much lower in saturated fat comes via Re:Code, where they reviewed the invitations for some of tech and media’s high-profile holiday parties. Apparently Fusion, which is based in Miami, will have fur coats at their party. Gawker employees may wear (or have already worn) aluminum foil. Twitter’s was entirely off-the-record, which sounds fancy to me.

What happened at the Flavorpill Media holiday party? You may never know.

While holiday parties can be a great time, they can also be incredibly boring. Dealing with boredom can actually be a lot harder than you think, even when you’re doing something you want to be doing. Writers are exceptionally delusional in this regard, sometimes on purpose. io9 has an interesting meditation on importance of being honest with yourself in this regard, because while forcing yourself to write can get you over a hump, there comes a time when every artist needs to face facts and accept that maybe their idea isn’t as interesting as they’d hoped it would be. This is to say nothing of the fact that writing may or may not even be worthy for consideration as a “career,” according to the New Republic. Sounds like it’s time for a stiff drink.